Saturday, 29 September 2012

Fazenda is a Brazilian steakhouse in Leeds. You fill your plate up from a delicious buffet including all end of salad, veg, potatoes, breads, olives, vine leaves ..... come back to your table and you have a little card. Its green on one side and red on the other.

Set it to green and the waiters come out holding large skewers of different meats and come slice it off for you. When you are full or want a rest you then just flip it to red again. These are all the meats you can have:

Tonight I sampled some melt in your mouth fillet steak, some yummy rump steak, amazing sausages and my favorite minted lamb. The meats were just amazing.

Fazenda is a little bit pricer than what I am normally used too but clearly I have never had GOOD steak before. A meal costs about £28.00 but it was definitely worth it. The service was excellent - our waitress even sorted us a free round of Mohito's! I definitely recommend this place if anyone is in Leeds. We had fun and all carnivorous urges have now been settled!

Okay so this is bizarre. I rarely remember my dreams but this morning in my dream that I remembered this song was playing.

Is this just a dream or a warning? Lets see how today pans out ....

In other news ..... I finally finished my second Phillippa Gregory book - the lady of the rivers. This was the story of the White Queen (Elizabeth's) mother Jacquetta. Her family is descended from the water goddess Melusina and she has some gifts but lives in a time that to keep safe she really doesn't not develop them even though her first husband a duke marries her precisely to do that.

When he dies Jacquetta takes her destiny in her own hands having fallen for her husbands squire Richard Woodville. They marry in secret and this time its for love. The rest of the book follows Jacquetta being the lady in waiting to Queen Margaret of Annou and the Sleeping king.

The rise in the court and become the Rivers family - her husband is made a Baron. The story follows them fighting for the king and queen against the house of York bringing us up to their defeat and the start of Elizabeth's story where she marries Edward in secret.

Again I really enjoyed this, so that means the red queen is next and when I finally sort myself a Kindle out the Kingmakers daughter.

Tuesday, 25 September 2012

Monday, 24 September 2012

A good TV show is over before you know it. That was certainly the case last night. That finale flew by. And just left me wanting more. Again I "tweeted" the person known as Sky1insider on twitter at Elliot Knights request expressing my desire for a second season of Sinbad. Anyone reading these reviews I have put up and also on twitter may I ask you to do the same? #SinbadSeason2.

The finale kicked off showing us a glimpse of Taryn's life before she lost her daughter. She promised Alehna played by Evanna Lynch (Luna in the Harry Potter movies and coicidently one of my favourite potter characters) that she would save her and that was apparently her sole focus through the whole of Sinbad. She was trying to get to the land of the dead. Im sure there was an easier way that all the dark magic and killing of royalty but then it wouldn't have made for such other good eps would it?

Cut to Sinbad and co in a pretty heavy storm about to be sucked into a swirling vortex in the middle of some random towers that are the markers for the doorway to the land of the dead. In fact the storms that bad they all have to rope themselves to the boat and everyone passes out.

When our crew comes too they are sailing in smooth waters again in a huge cavern and eventually venture into the land of limbo that looks exactly like Basra except its greyer. The entrance to Limbo is a gate which Gunnar can't move at all but Sinbad at Tigers suggestion just pops it and they can go through.

Big bad - We are immediately introduced to some strange cyclopitic creatures referred to as Guardians. Sinbad impulsively runs off and gets caught by one of these.

The guardian shoots a beam of light at our hero and suddenly he is transported to an alternative Basra and we get to see what life would have been like for Gunnar and Anwar without him knowing them. (Sadly no Rina. Marama Corlett is so under used!!! It would have been brilliant to see Rina in proper Jewel thief mode).

Meanwhile the scoobies go after Sinbad.

Gunnar is epic - Our warrior firstly realises Tiger isn't who she is and beats (Quite literally) Taryn out of her. The he takes on the guardian. He manages to distract it with a sword and only as Gunnar can so the rest can make a grab to get our hero back.

In alternative Basra, Gunnar has become a street fighter all twisted with rage. Sinbad trys to talk to alternate Gunnar but instead ends up getting the crap kicked out of him. In a nice montage flicking back and forth between limbo and alternate Basra every time Alternate Gunnar hits Sinbad, he's actually whacking the Guardian.

They drag Sinbad to safety and then in Alternative Basra we meet my lovely boy Anwar who apparently went back home after getting seasick on the providence and his father covered up him leaving university. He went on to become a proper - not "student" doctor.

Alternative Anwar finds Sinbad in Alternate Basra and brings him back to his office and patches him up. This is played during the real Anwar in Limbo examining him.

Sinbad is frustrated and confused and leaves after informing Anwar that there is a big world out there and they were friends. He goes and knocks on his houses door to discover his brother Jamil doesn't even recognize him.

In limbo Gunnar insists Taryn try do something, so she starts weaving her magic and whispering for Sinbad to stay alive. In Alternative Basra, Anwar has followed Sinbad to his brothers and tells him that he defy s the laws of science and has no heartbeat. Sinbad is dead. Suddenly the whole of Alternative Basra are staring at him and there's silence. Taryn manages to pull Sinbad back to Limbo and we make the interesting discovery that actually Sinbad has a foot in both the worlds of the dead and living.

We discover that for that reason the Guardians are really after him and it all makes sense Death in ep 3 telling Sinbad they have met before. Our hero realises that he's made an awful mistake bringing all his friends here and takes off after locking them in to sacrifice himself to the Guardians.

Then the real Jamil shows up and manages to get Sinbad to safety. The scooby gang are naturally relieved and Jamil takes them to a place where he's mapped the whole of limbo - secret passages and all. They start planning to get back to the providence.

Queue creepy music that Taryn identifies as a lullaby she used to sing to Alehna. Taryn realises its her daughter calling for her and begs Sinbad to help her find her. It looks for a moment that she has burnt all her britches with all the scooby gang. Even Anwar holds fast and surprisingly its Gunnar that says the words "its your choice" and our hero chooses to then help the witch.

They follow the music to a library. Taryn and Alehna are reunited and we find out more about Sinbads origins. Apparently his mother was preggers wth him when she died and his father was the most powerful mage in the world. He defyed everything and got both him newborn and his pregnant mother out. Sinbad survived fine, his mother ended up in the coma state we saw right at the beginning. Not quite sure what happened to the dad though as Jamil and Sinbad both confirm they never knew him.

At that point I was having a crazy idea that Cook was maybe going to turn out to be his dad or someone working with him - explaining why the providence won't sail without Sinbad . . . and why he can't leave the ship in some way but no ......

After story time is over Gunnar realises the Guardians have found them complete with hounds this time and yells "incoming". My fav line of the ep was Tiger stating "I hate dogs" LOL at the moment. They start trying to barricade the door but realise its pointless. Rina then says they should go down fighting and they are resigned that they will die there until . ....

And I am so glad the writers did this. After 12 eps of Anwar coming so close but then managing to do an Anwar he really pulled through. During story time it seems he started rooting through the library in Limbo. Much to Rina's hilarious exasperation.

Rina and Anwar - my fav bit of dialogue of the two last night.

Rina - "So while we are making barricades you were looking at dusty books?"
Anwar - "We are in a library in limbo on the edge of the land of the dead. I couldn't resist!"

Paid off though as the delicious doc managed to find a map of the library and a secret way out. Rina's lock picking skills came in too and I can honestly say I wanted to cheer when Anwar so pleased that they got the door open suddenly utter, "Anwar is amazing." Rina gave him a lovely smile at the moment too!

Gunnar was more epic - holding off the hounds as they all made their escape through the door.

As they are making their escape, Alehna starts hearing a creepy voice calling her.

They escape the Library and a really huge Guardian appears. Jamil then sacrifices himself so that Sinbad can live and Gunnar and Anwar have to drag him away before he goes after his brother.

Then we are once again onboard the Providence. Cook has prepared a huge feast. Rina is gently taking bandages off Anwar. Sinbad finally emerged clearly gutted he got so close to getting Jamil out of there. Tiger asks how he's holding up "dead apparently" our hero replies deflated.

Cook threatens to go impart his wisdom but luckily Anwar decides he will do it instead as he has a speech prepared. Its actually a lovely scene in which he points out there's more adventures out there and Sinbad saved them all - giving them life. Sinbad notes that Anwar used to be afraid of adventures and he quips that Sinbad was a bad influence. We get a hint of smile back on our hero's face.

Anwar goes back to the rest and starts dishing food out. He shares a lovely smile with Rina. I was screaming. Why was there no kiss or something between the two????? I can feel some fanfiction coming on. There was no romance at all in this ep which was very disappointing as I had read some spoilers and Tumblrs alluding to a Tiger and Sinbad kiss, a possible peck on the cheek between Anwar and Rina and the return of Nala.

Sinbad gets a hold of himself and wishes his brother peace. The last scene was Taryn hugging Alehna and her eyes went dark like Deaths in ep 3. Looks like they kept it open for a second season. Something came back with them!!!!!!!

Yes its been cheesy in places with some major plot holes - Cook? How did they get back out that vortex? are just 2 springing to mind........ yes some of the acting has been a bit wooden. But look at Enterprise and Stargate Atlantis. It took 2 seasons before they really got good. And regardless of all that I have loved the journey. I don't know how I am going to fill the Sinbad and Dimitri shaped void in my Sunday nights now.

Fingers crossed this one gets another shot. And failing that there is some seriously good extras on the boxset I have asked my brother to get me for my birthday.

Saturday, 22 September 2012

It kicks off with a creepy monk type guy clearly in love with a widowed blond women Lara trying to convince her to move somewhere safer with her child.

Our hero's arrive in Malta which Tiger informs us is the land of lamb and honeyed ale. Sounds nice enough yeah. The harbor master has abandoned his post Anwar informs us and Gunnar it seems wants to sell silk and have nothing to do with hunting down the map. Sinbad is a little narked off and after a funny bit where our warrior jumps at a cat, he lets him go.

They got to a bar to meet the monk. And the flamboyant bartender Phillipe played brilliantly by Mathew Horne of Gavin and Stacey fame trys to kick them out. Tiger discovers her monk friend is sick and storms off. Sinbad goes after her and they have a little tiff. He clearly really wants the map and she just cares about her friend.

Suddenly the town starts to go nuts and people are painting on doors. Phillipe does a complete you turn and insists they get inside again. Sinbad demands to know whats passing over (he reconises what the paint means) and Phillipe informs them that its the Xilon fiend and its not safe. It comes in on the wind and can possess people.

Gunnar meanwhile has met the widow - he was relieving silk to her dead husband, ordered before he died. When he realizes hes dead, Gunnar insists she keep it regardless and she then invites him in to eat.

Romantic action - Gunnar finally gets a girl. He fixes up her house a bit, gives her son a necklace with a wolf on and Lara asks him to stay while the fiend is passing over. They have some snogging action oversee by the jealous monk who then arrests Gunnar and makes out he is the fiend as he has given the wolf trinket to her son. Yes guess what the fiend is a wolf!!!!

Lara runs to fetch Sinbad and takes them to the monastry. Sinbad convinces the monks to give him to nightfall to find the real beast or Gunnar dies. They return to the bar and Sinbad is quite cranky with Phillipe demanding information. Sinbad is pretty cranky in most of this.

Meanwhile Tiger visits her friend and he's not all there talking about moonlight revealing the way. Also shock horror Taryn is there posing as a nun also trying to get info. Tiger leave and Taryn kills the brother.

Tiger returns and she and Sinbad decide to hunt the creature much to Anwars annoyance. He points out its more logical to work out the pattern of the killings. The scoobie gang splits up.

Rina and Anwar - They look really happy chatting away as they arrive in Malta. Rina grabs him before they enter the tavern expressing that even Gunnar doesn't want to get involved in this map. Anwar nobly points out that means Sinbad needs them more than ever. They decide to get into the Harbor masters house. Lovely scene where they find his research funnily marked out on the ceiling and they work out the herb wolfbane/contro is involved in the deaths.

Sinbad and Tiger follow the scent of the beast - yes Tiger was brought up by tigers and there by has this amazing smelling ability. They go through some tunnels and stuff and end up back at the tavern at exactly the same time Anwar and Rina do.

Big bad - Wasn't expecting this and it was a brilliant twist - Phillipe was the fiend. He transforms and runs off. The scooby gang take off after him to save Gunnar who is about to be murdered. The monks panic when the real fiend arrives and Lara manages to untie Gunnar.

Gunnar is epic - He lobs an axe at the fiend

They they all run. Lovely montage cutting from monster to steps to monster to Rina tripping and Anwar pulling her up again. Tiger again smells wolf bane on Gunnars coat so he takes it off. Sinbad lobs it out the window. The fiend make a jump for it and ironically falls on top of the evil brother.

Next we have all the gang and Lara looking down at the dead body and there's a rustle. Sinbad pulls his dagger, checks it out and Phillipe is in the bushes in all his naked glory. Haha Sinbad insists someone get a robe. Tiger takes off. Rina hands Phillipe some more bushes (why??? hes in the bushes) to protect his modesty. Anwar suggests he invest in a cage. Phillipe likes the idea and stand up treating them to his nakedness once more. The faces on Anwar, Rina, Gunnar and Lara are just brilliant.

Tiger meanwhile returning back with the robe finds a fountain and then the moon comes out and there's the map!But shock horror Taryn catches up with her. Sinbad then finds Tiger weakened. They return to the ship. Gunnar looks torn for a moment - should he stay with Lara or not. He choses not and returns to the providence as Anwar insists Tiger rest.

The ep finishes with Tiger looking in the mirror and Taryn looking back. Yes the big bad is inside her. All I can say is I am really looking forward to the finale to see how that pans out!

Another episode I totally loved. Tiger at the end of the last ep freed sinbad (should really have put that in the other review lol) and then he offered her a lift. It seems that she is the first one of the crew to have a really good idea in that they take on a passenger and move some cargo for money!

They take onboard a really haughty professor and a black egg.

The professor makes out its not an egg and Sinbad throws Anwar out of his cabin to make way for her to sleep there. There is a scene where he's clearing out scrolls and shes moving her stuff in.

Rina and Anwar - Seems our boy has been drawing some pics of the crew including lots of Rina.

Anwar works out that the egg isn't an egg and that freaks out the professor so she spins him some lies that its paradise. The egg is full of spores that will populate Tayer island where they are headed and transform it into a paradise.

Rina and Anwar 2 - They indulge in some mutual sulking. Anwar hiding away below deck as he has been kicked out of his room and made to feel stupid by the horrible professor and Rina as she is being ordered around to fetch things for her. Then Rina snaps that Tayer island is populated.

Anwar confronts the professor and she spins more lies and appeals to his science turning his head that she wants him to witness her creation. The egg meanwhile starts to overheat and the professor has a paddy insisting they wash it every 2 hours.

Anwar does an Anwar - He relieves Rina on watch overnight. She hands him an hourglass and reminds him not to forget to water his egg. What does he do? Falls asleep of course and in the more Rina discovers in horror its hatched.

Sinbad and the boys go below deck and discover actually theres a bad ass snake come out of it not spores. They try catch it and Gunnar gets bit.

The professor after a major hissy fit that shes been found out about the monster, spins more lies and convinces Anwar they can neutralise it. Both of them go below deck to confront the monster and then the bitch locks him down there.

Anwar does an Anwar - I totally love the character as you know but bloody hell. She's lied to you once and created an evil giant snake. Why on Earth would you trust her a second time?

Our hero rescues Anwar just in the nick of time and then the professor takes the doc hostage. But that backfires and she ends up losing her arm to her own creation. They work out its a night hunter and hatch a plan to kill it, battening down the ship.

The professor however has other idea's and amazingly finds the only unboarded up door to the lower deck and throws herself in. Anwar discovers her, works out she was actually merging her own life with the snake and Gunnar voices the chilling truth - now it has strength and intelligence. Tiger confirms this when they lower her down in the cage meaning to use her as bait to pull it up and lob its head off.

Instead they go a different route, cook working out from the professor snubbing his food earlier that shes allergic to nuts. He and rina cook up some nutty concoction that Sinbad anoints 3 arrows with. The monster breaks through the next deck and Gunnar and tiger try get it to show itself. The snake/professor toys with Anwar and drags him around under the water a bit.

Gunnar is epic - Even injured our warrior manages to lob the head off the snake and save the day!

Romantic action - Lovely conversation at the end building on the tension between Tiger and Sinbad. He asks her to stay and she tells him she knows a place that may have a map to the land of the dead.

After Kuji last week I loved this ep. It kicks off with a bloke in robes meditating with a stone and he sees a vision of Sinbad with a knife dripping with blood and him lying on the floor.

Cut to the providence and Sinbad is frustratedly interrogating Anwar on what Kuji said last week. He wants to know what he is facing in the future.

Anwar does an Anwar - Not supposed to say a word Anwar. The annoying goddess last week said that but as usual our lovely doc can't keep his mouth shut!

Cook lets slip about this order of the stone who can see the future. Queue the scooby gang sailing to where these stone bods live. Sinbad and Rina enter a tavern and pretend to be pilgrims where they meet Griff - the frustrated son of the order of the stone leader (his father is the bloke who had the vision at the beginning). He dashes Sinbads hopes telling him he would have to join the order and pounder about things for 30 odd years.

We pan back to the everyone in the bar and Sinbad pretty much sulking as he didn't get the answer he wants. A pretty barmaid brings them some drinks and flirts with him. This ups our hero's spirits again and much to Gunnar and Anwars amusement he decides the trip might be worthwhile after all and goes and follows her.

Rina made a point that between Gunnars muscles, Anwars brains and her light fingers there is not a vault in the land that they couldn't crack. They are overheard by Griff who tells them the stones in a labyrinth not a vault. Good job Anwars really a boffin and can crack labyrinths - having solved a really big one at 9 years old.

Anwar goes and fetches Sinbad who's quite annoyed at being pulled away from the pretty barmaid who was looking like a sure thing. Griff says that he will let them in to the labyrinth with the only key he has amazingly in his possession if they help him navigate it. Agreement made, they leave the tavern and there's a really funny scene.

Gunnar is epic - he scared Griff within an inch of his life, flinging him up against the wall to check he's telling the truth. Rina states that walking into traps is their specialty and she notes that Gunnar enjoyed that. It was brilliantly played by Elliot Cowan as usual.

They enter the labyrinth and are followed by a dark and creepy looking figure. Anwar starts working on things but Griff is too inpatient and yells at him that they are lost.

Rina and Anwar - not much this week but her sticking up for Anwar and telling Griff that yelling at him was useless, was just adorable. Look how far they have come! Ep 2 she trys to kill him and now she's defending him. Bless.

They get caught by the master of the order. Griff runs off and meets the creepy person following them. Sinbad is to be killed so he can then not kill the master. Griff comes back and his father isn't thick. He works out his son let them in and back hands him ordering him to go somewhere else in the order to learn properly. Griff offers to kill Sinbad instead of his father. Which he does by poison - which is apparently the best method.

Anwar and co watch on in horror and then they are thrown out of a moving cart tied up and blindfolded. But our hero is not dead!!!!! Shady creepy person who has been following them turns out to be a bounty hunter called tiger brought in by Taryn to bring our hero to her. They have a bit of a charged fight and she puts a magnetic collar on him so that if he strays from her poisoned needles will impale his neck. Sinbad cleverly turns this round to actually she needs to stay with him and runs off to make another attempt on the Labyrinth.

Griff meanwhile has convinced his father he will protect him and they go to the stone.

Meanwhile Anwar and co decide they have to give Sinbad a proper burial and go to the morgue only to discover no body! And a message ARGO carved into a table. Now between you and me I have no clue in the scene where Sinbad woke up and was fighting tiger where he found the time to do that but lets go with it .......

The scoobies knock out some of the order, steal their robes and have another crack at the labyrinth. Tiger meanwhile steps on one of the traps and Sinbad epically saves her by pushing her and landing on top of her. Queue more sexual tension. Anwar and co catch up with him and they all find the stone.

In a nice twist it seems that the stone does show the future but its flashes. It doesn't always fill in all the gaps. Griff ends up accidentally stabbing his dad. Sinbad wrestles the knife off him and that's what was seen. Sinbad realizes the stone is a bad thing and smashes it. It was a really good piece of tv I though - time seemed to slow down and all these parts of the stone were floating showing tiny glimpses of the future.

The episode finishes with Cook questioning Sinbad and him telling him about all the futures he saw including being in love and heart broken from Tiger. So Nala is gone and replaced!

The Kuji episode. I was a little nervous as I knew Hannah Tointon was guest staring and after great discussion with Pam at work the consensus was that usually when Hannah Tointon pops up in something .... well it is either really really good aka the inbetweeners or not so good - Hollyoaks. Sorry Hannah. I did love you in the inbetweeners.

Anyway moving on from the last episode it seems that my lovely doctor Anwar is having some confidence problems due to his failed rescue of Rina the week before. Also he had convinced himself he was useless compared to the rest of the group and was thinking of leaving.

Anwar wakes up on his birthday having nightmares (we later find out from Sinbad he has been dreaming of scorpions with Rina's head on - weird . . .). Gunnar is quite cranky with him, Sinbad seems more preoccupied with them finding land and a wreck.

Queue our scooby sailor band rowing ashore and plundering. Theres a funny moment where Gunnar lobs a fish at Anwar's head. He ducks. Good thing too - I wouldn't wish anyone being hit in the face by a fish on their birthday.

Anwar wanders off on his own and find a chest. They drag it out and discover weirdly that the boat is sinking when they try to take it back to the providence. Gunnar and Sinbad much to Anwar's horror try hack it open with their axe and sword respectively.

So Sinbad decides its too valuable. Our hero goes back to the ship and orders cook to meet them at the other side of the island in shallower waters and they will carry it aboard. Queue a lovely shot of him of course diving into the sea. It never gets old drooling over Elliot diving. Thank you Sky 1!

When Sinbad returns Anwars still trying to figure the box out. Sinbad then suddenly blows on it and bam it opens up to reveal Hannah Tointon as Kuji - a goddess. Now I know its not her fault but the deity annoyed me.

Basically the rest of the episode revealed Kuji was being stalked by a drumming army on horses and she was secretly testing Anwars mettle. The Army - an illusion created by Kuji demanded her back and Anwar left the group as they wanted to use Kuji as bait and try pick the army off. But Sinbad and co obviously went to get their doc back hence proving that Anwar was important and needed.

Also they were heavily outnumbered and everyone died except her and Anwar and when she told him to leave he refused so that showed courage and then finally after almost an hour of Kuji annoyingly and smugly not being able to prove she was a god, she raised her hand, smashed it on the beach and bam army deaded. She revealed at the end he would be essential in the coming journey ahead and resurrected everyone.

Romantic Action - Anwar had a bit of a crush on the goddess. Of course this annoyed me as I am an Anwar/Rina shipper.

Rina and Anwar - Rina actually seemed jealous esp when they discovered Anwar had gone. Gunnar seemed to point out he had done it out of love and she snapped back it was lust.

Gunnar is epic - He had a whole brilliantly lit scene where he explained how to make a bear trap and used shadows to illustrate his story.

Monday, 17 September 2012

Our hero's sneak back into Basra and find its a changed place. Akbari has murdered his brother and is about to be crowned king and Taryn has convinced him to bring the old ways back and is liberating secret black temples which are ironically hidden under places of wisdom. She starts destroying scrolls and knowledge.

The crew witness some of this and then Sinbad decides he has to play hero and chases after some guards who are harassing a scholar.

Gunnar is epic -saves Sinbads butt and fights off some guards with total ease. Then berate Sinbad for not sticking to the plan.

The scholar explains whats happened and states that important learner-ed and scientific people are in danger.

Anwar realises as his father is the professor of medicine he needs to get to them and there is a lovely scene where Sinbad tells him to go and bring them back to the ship. More lovely this is Rina suddenly offers to help him. They run off.

Sinbad goes to find his friend who is a guard and was in the pilot episode to find out where Tayrn has his gran.

Big bad - Taryn meanwhile is realising weird shadow beasts that are teleporting people to a cage inside a building somewhere. Gunnar and Sinbad start off to go rescue his gran and Nala keeps guard outside. She is immediatly taken by the shadows.

Rina and Anwar - Some beautiful dialogue. They walk through the streets and Anwar ponders if their paths ever crossed. Rina says not as she would have robbed him. Cut to outside Anwars parents:

Rina: “You must know a back way in. It’s safer.”
Anwar: “Really?”
Rina: “What? You mean you’ve never sneaked in late?”
Anwar: “No!”
Rina: “Typical.” Then she yanks him away to find another way in.

Great scene of Rina jumping into the house with ease and Anwar struggling to get through a window. They are caught by his mother and despite telling his parents of the danger they insist they have lunch first. His mother lets slip Anwar isn't actually a trained doctor only a student and Rina looks mad as hell and storms off. Cuts to her trying to make him see they are acting strange and it turns out they have called the guards who run in and capture Rina.

Anwar does an Anwar - His rescue of Rina is epically funny. He trys to jump on the cage/cart they have her in and just ends up flat on his face. Rina naturally frees herself.

Sinbad meanwhile loses Gunnar - he ends up on the shadows place too. Then he faces off with Akbari. Suddenly both men make up, the curse is broken and Taryn pretty annoyed at that kills Akbari informing him quite darkly that actually over the last few weeks he has been serving her purpose not her his.

Sinbads gran manages in all the hype to smash the stone Taryn has been using to control the shadows freeing Gunnar and Nala and then she dies but not before her and Taryn imply that Sinbad is so much more important and there are things about him we don't know.

The epsiode ends with a total shock. After some brilliant ribbing of Anwars rescue attempt, Nala leaves?????? Not without giving our hero a kiss though. Shocking, so unexpected.

The ship gets attacked queue Sinbad getting to dive beautifully overboard to check out the damage. Thank you writers - I am not getting tired of any Sinbad in the water shots :)

He gets washed up on shore complete with 4 scratches down his chest. Then our hero meets the rather gorgeous Roisin played by Georgia King.

He falls hook line and sinker for her. She meanwhile is stealing all his memories. Nala and Gunnar row over to the island and try to bring him back. Nala seems jealous. Sinbad insists he wants to stay so Nala gives him to sunrise to return back to them and the ship.

Gunner is Epic - Not so much fighting this ep but mention of this hilarious line:

Romantic Action - Sinbad and Roisin get it on. No surprises there. In the morning when the curse kicks in the siren removes all memory of his grandmother and it neutralises the curse. Roisin then proceeds to usher Sinbad off on a journey as he is getting more and more disorientated.

Back onboard the ship. The rest of the gang examine a razer sharp thing thats lodged itself on a plank of wood. Cook determines its a fingernail. Rina is not ready to let Sinbad go yet so she and Anwar go after him.

Rina and Anwar - I really do love these two. Finally we see a slight weakness in our scrappy thief. She doesn't like ghosts. They both encounter some swirly dark memories and run off then fall down into some sort of trench thing where they discover some of Roisins past victims missing teeth. Rina has lifted some teeth from Roisins hut so they realise they need to get a move on and stack up aload of skulls to climb back out. Where more memories are waiting including Sinbads gran below.

Rina and Anwar theorise - too quickly in my book that they are memories and Sinbads are being stolen and set off after them, naturally rescuing our hero in the nick of time. Rina does this by offering up her memories and mid way through her story turning them nasty thereby neutralising her.

Interestingly I think that even at the end when Anwar broached asking her if she really got sold into slavery and she made out he was daft to have fallen for it - that was what happened to her. I would love to see an ep exploring Rina's background.

Big bad - Taryn meanwhile has taken Sinbad's grandmother prisoner and works some magic that ends up giving Sinbad a vision at the end of her calling for his help. Sinbad decides they are going back to Basra.

I am actively making an effort to tweet more. Truthfully I don't fully understand twitter yet but got excited this weekend when I realised some of the Sinbad stars are on there.

I don't know what a re-tweet is. I don't actually know if when I @ . . . .someone they actually read it? I mean where does the tweet I have just made go? I @ 3 people in the last 24 hrs but can't see them anywhere on their twitter feed.

And what is the deal with the hash tag stuff. Was I suppose to #Sinbad when I mentioned it in my tweet? Questions ehh but at least I managed to sort the widget whatever to link my twitter to show on here.

Interestingly as well I have tweeted more in the last 48 hours then since setting up the account so I will keep trying to get my head round it :) Its probably to do with my brother as well telling me he was getting into to twitter. If G can navigate this stuff then so can I. Though saying that G has only tweeted once so actually he is worse than me!!!!

Also I got an email his morning saying I had a new follower. I had a nosy at it and he's called onlinemarketinghelp. Not that exciting ehh but from what I can gather its a blog that possibly helps blogs ????? I will have to have a read properly. Hopefully its that and not some dude who wants to spam me with questionnaires or something.

I know one thing - I have been keeping this account for a few years now. Yes I know I deleted a couple of years of posts but I never really found my direction. The blog wasn't not going the way I wanted it too.

Now it is and I know I actually enjoy blogging about TV and films. And these posts seem to get the most attention. So I will continue doing it. But perhaps I need to look into making this blog more epic. Of course anything techie and I am pap . . . .

Oh well I will just have to learn somehow.

More Sinbad or #Sinbad (if I suss this) reviews to follow. Also I have just started Game of Thrones so might have to say a few words about that too.

Sunday, 16 September 2012

Some lovely character interaction in this ep. For once our hero's are not starving and at the beginning of this ep are relaxed, carefree and having some fun drinking in a bar. Rina is hilariously trying to give Anwar a tatoo.

Theres a lovely conversation as to why he wants the tatoo and then Nala asked Gunnar about his. The big man totally lies and makes out its a farming tatoo to bless and bring on success in sheep breeding. The group all laugh and Anwar asks Rina not to give him one of those. The writers have to be setting these two up as the looks between them
was just brilliant. Just one little snag and we will get to that later

Anwar - bless him either can't take the pain or has had too much alcohol and needs air. Much to amusement of the rest he runs off. There is a funny shot of him stood next to a donkey and you can clearly see that somethings going through his mind at that point as he trys to psyche himself up to go back. Then he see's 4 guards wandering round with a drawing of Sinbad.

He returns and trys to warn them. At first they all think he is trying to get out of the Tatoo but then they see them and realise they are from Basra. They hatch a plan, after Gunnar quite epically turns into some yoda type and convinces Sinbad who wants to confront them to run and bottle his anger. The distraction was brilliant and my inner fan girl was screaming with delight.

Rina and Anwar - This week to get Sinbad past the guards Nala and Rina pretend to fight over Anwar. Rina yells at him for kissing Nala. Nala pushes past Rina and says he's mine now and plants one on him. Then Rina pushes her away and plants one really long kiss on him then tells him hilariously not to get any ideas lover boy. How can you not after that???

Gunnar and Sinbad escape and the rest are to meet them later sailing round the cape. However when Anwar, Rina and Nala get back to the ship their are guards already on there and Taryn waiting. Quue them getting tied up. It seems every ep they get jailed or something haha.

Taryn seperates Anwar and realising his crush on Rina threatens to kill everyone if he doesn't talk. So he does.

Anwar does and Anwar - Okay I know I love ya and you were under threat of death but really . . . . did you have to mention the curse. You had given Taryn enough!

The sorcerous starts going through their provisions looking for something of Sinbads and dum . . . dum dum shockingly finds Rina has been keeping a lock of Sinbads hair. WHYYYYYYYYY Writers!!! Oh well she will wise up and realise the hunky doc is who she is meant to be with.

Gunnar is epic - Meanwhile Gunnar and Sinbad get attacked by some ninja types. Our warrior puts up a good fight but its not good enough and then in a surprise twist they take the norseman and leave our hero passed out.

Big bad - Taryn meanwhile does some freaky magic ritual with sand and Sinbads hair and creates a monster who wouldn't look out of place as Community's human being.

Anwar and co get locked up downstairs. Rina berates him for giving Taryn information. He berates her for fondly keeping a lock of Sinbad's hair also maintaining he did what he had to do to save their lives. Rina manages to free herself - nice skills theres and unlocks the cage letting them out.

Sinbad wakes up and goes after Gunnar. He finds him captured by the ninja dudes who are wanting to kill him for his past viking stuff. Anyhoo he manages to convince the ninja boss to give him a chance to redeem himself as they discover the monster is after Sinbad.

Back on the ship the rest hatch a plan to stop Taryn involving Rina covered in red making out to the guards that the creature is back. She and Nala wake up Taryn from her trance and they discover now theres no way to control the monster.

However Gunnar is epic once more- when the creature catches up with him and Sinbad he makes another lovely yoda speech about letting go as its feeding off his anger. In a far to easy in my eyes finish Sinbad practically counts to 10, slows his breathing and the monster falls back into sand again.

They return and Sinbad releases Taryn who has a vision when he helps her up of a blond girl and flashes of Sinbad going somewhere. You know that will be important later!

This was quite a creepy ep. Sinbad and the crew are stuck in the ocean. Theres no wind, no land just heat and when its night cold. They have run out of supplies and are having to survive on a tiny amount of water. It seems to be a running them that our merry band run out of food! Surprisingly they are not coping too well, poor cook seems to be suffering the worse having full on hallucinations.

Cook sees a ship but they put it off as being a mirage from their condition until in the evening Rina spots it too. Theres a lantern light on it. Rina and Sinbad row over (it seems only Sinbad and our scrappy thief were brave enough. Gunnar wanted nothing to do with it!) All they find is a rotting wedding feast and an old man strangly alive.

They bring him back and his name turns out to be Anicetus played brilliantly by Timothy Spall. Anicentus creeps out Gunnar who starts flashing back to some of the atrocities from his viking days. You can see Nala has a lot on her mind too. Anwar talks to him and finds someone with a lot of knowledge. He seems the most comfortable with him.

Rina and Anwar - sat very close together while telling stories to try keep their minds.

During this Sinbad has a vision in the fire and see's his brother.

Romantic Action - Surprisingly its not our hero this week. It seems that Anicetus turns out to be Death and even more freaky Nala's betrothed. Her people made a deal a long time ago that one of them would marry death to save their people and Nala got the nasty end of that straw.

In her cabin she pulls out a spectacular wedding outfit. I have to say all of Nala's clothes are fabulous. She gets dressed, goes to Anicetus - presumingly working out its him keeping the Providence in the state it is at the moment and she goes with him to fulfill her obligation and save the rest. Also to see her father again.

Gunnar is epic - Finally, our warrior gets his grove back and him and Sinbad go after Nala. And rescue her. From Death!!!! There was a nice scene involving butterflies and death's ship pretty much disappearing meaning all our sexy cast drop into the ocean. Any excuse to get them wet ehh. Im not complaining.

Sinbad swims down and rescues a sinking Nala. So queue Nala being the love interest??????? Who knows. But as soon as she's back on board the wind sweeps up again and they can sail to safety.

Saturday, 15 September 2012

I loved this episode. I think this is where I started to feel the show and the characters properly. House of games. It kicks of with a nice boat race - Sinbad and Gunnar naturally whooping the other boats ass with the providence. Nala was not overly impressed and told them both off for being boy races. Cooks kitchen got knocked about and he let out a little roar of frustration.

Turns out our merry band need supplies so they pull into a port and discover actually there's nothing there. Hilariously the boat they were racing pulls in and its a rich dude with tons of food. Our bods have to eat humble pie.

Rina, while everyone is trying to talk mr sour loser rich guy into giving them some food decides to rob them, turn tail and run off. Cook catches her but doesn't bother to stop her, merely hitting her with one of his brilliant lines "Little fox cannot change her nature."

The rich man says if they give him something of value he will give the crew food. They go back and realise Rina is gone.

Anwar does an Anwar - this my new section hehe. Silly Anwar barters the boats. Naturally this does not go down with the others. To his credit he did what he thought was right to save them. He apologises and Sinbad comes clean to him about the curse.

The group follow the rich man to the palace of games, stealing some table clothes to tart themselves up. This is a magical gambling house hosted by 2 twins - bit of a fanty and mingo feeling from Firefly on this one and a man with no eyes.

Sinbad convinces Nala to let him beat her hair butterfly clip thing in an attempt to win back the boat. He loses. So our hero pulls out the big guns, accuses the hosts of using croaked dice and they flip a coin to see if he can play one more game although he has nothing to wager. Luck is on their side and they are allowed into the high rollers room where the rich bloke is.

Before they go in through Rina arrives posing as Lady Samara and dressed like well I can only describe it as someone from a final fantasy game. Her hair all flicked up and weird makeup. The dress is nice though! The gang are non to pleased to see her and despite taking some obvious digs at her don't give her away.

Sinbad easily beats the other guy and they win the ship back. Suddenly the twins are treating them like honored guests.

Romantic action - Rina and Anwar are definitely making some eyes across the room at each other. So perhaps the Sinbad/Rina pairing isn't happening? He goes over and they have a slightly charged conversation.

Gunnar decides he doesn't like the place. Elliot Cowan has some brilliant facial expressions, especially when looking at a big pile of glasses of something pink. He decides to leave and gets magicked away somewhere.

Sinbad somewhat seduced on his good luck streak gets suckered into another game when the twins decide he can't leave. He has to rescue everyone in some bizarre spinning circle with lots of doors. The curse is also kicking in at this point. He manages to rescue everyone and Rina gets him out in the nick of time.

Sinbad is choking, Anwar explains the curse and they leave to get him on the boat. Rina hestitates but Anwar flirts "Lady Samara your ship awaits." Ep 3 ends with Sinbad coming clean about the curse to all and cook stating that "Little fox has found a pack to run with."

We pick off exactly where we left. Our merry band of sailors are trying to learn how to sail. Cook is yelling and giving them lessons. At one point both Nala and Rina are getting nowhere hoisting a sail. Actually it was quite amusing. Rina was practically hanging in mid air, way to light to pull the rope.

They hit land and before going over during the night some creepy kids in heavy make up invade and take them prisoner. Dragging them onshore we are introduced to this weeks:

Big bad - Razia queen of the water thieves. It turns out the tribe are slightly cannibalistic. Razia however has some carnal desires and decides she wants a little bump and grind with Gunnar. Sinbad naturally can't have that. He's the hero after all so in an utterly charming speech - "Im Sinbad, you will never forget me" Elliot Knight - Nailed it!!!!! She chooses him instead and orders that the rest will fight each other later on.

Romantic Action - Sinbad gets it in with Razia and discovers she has a magical bird chained up in her den.

Meanwhile - Anwar, Nala and Rina are caged in one cell and Gunnar in a seperate one. Why who knows. One of the tribe comes and torments them saying Anwar and Gunnar will fight each other. The norse man refuses. Anwar also isn't warm on that idea. Neither would I if they wanted me to go up against Gunnar. Anyhoo Rina then offers to fight Anwar - que more hilariousness.

Razia leaves Sinbad locked up and returns to the Tribe for "dinner and entertainment." To punish Gunnar for not fighting they seemed to have dressed him up as a mermaid and were making him pour out drinks.

Rina and Anwar - fast becoming my fav characters. They bounce off each other brilliantly and are polar opposites. The fight starts and Anwar just stands there refusing to hit her on grounds that shes a woman so Rina beats the crap out of him

Sinbad meanwhile has a chilling conversation with Razia's son, where he discovers what happens to Razia's men after she's finished with them. Pretty much spit out to dry and made into trophies around her bed. He then manages to make an escape. Good thing too as the sun will be coming up and his curse kick in.

But being our lovely hero he goes back to rescue everyone regardless of the curse, just in the nick of time as Rina has Anwar under her in a choke hold hahaha.

Gunnar is epic - Gunnar snaps out of his waitress duties, Shows off some of his warrior moves and they all get into a fight with the Tribe working together this time and end up taking Razia's son hostage. This leads to an exchange that shows the tribe Razia has a weakness and our hero's escape back to the boat except Sinbad who goes back to free the bird. Interesting as the creature didn't seem that impressed with him earlier.

This works to his advantage though when Razia catches him up intend on ending him for wrecking her reign. He jumps of a cliff and the bird no longer hostile and happy with his freedom catches him, drops him back at the ship and provides some much needed wind to get the boat sailing in escape.

Exactly that, Sinbad gets his back story. He starts off fighting to try get some money clevely losing at a fist fight so his brother Jamil gets excellent odds. For some bizarre reason Taryn is watching him. Then he ends up meeting Nala and her father and robs them. But it turns out he is robbing to keep his family and the jokes on him as all he ends up getting is some weird totem/voodoo doll thing.

Then he accidentally kills the King/Sultan ermm not sure of the correct title, (Akbari) brothers son. Both he and his brother get thrown in jail and Akbari then shockingly kills Jamil in front of Sinbad in retribution.

Sinbad goes back home rather nicely managing to bust out of the Palace jail and unsurprisingly his grandmother is not that impressed one of her grandson's is dead and to teach him a lesson puts a curse on him by creating a snazzy looking locket that locks round his neck. She warns him he cannot be on land longer than 1 cycle of the sun and he must find atonement. He runs off to get off land by sneaking onto the Ship the Providence.

Taryn we discover works for Akbari and is a sorcerous. Again - why was she watching the fight?????? But Akbari's brother is currently in charge and all magic is outlawed.

On board the providence Sinbad meets Rina and discovers he is not the only stowaway although Rina's is accidental. She was stealing and meant to get off the boat before it set off. He also meets Anwar the ships doctor who hilariously is seasick. Sinbad is still covered in bruises from his time against the palace guard etc that Anwar decides to patch him up and then mentions to the Providence Captain that one of his crew downstairs is injured. Que Sinbad busted.

Also Nala and her dad turn up as passengers - it looks as though Sinbad might talk his way out of things and become crew offically on half rations and then tossed off at the next port until they tell the Captain he stole from them. So instead he gets locked up.

Que the evening - big storm. Anwar being the compassionate person he is checks on Sinbad who then captures him to get out of the cell. Rina makes another appearance and then more guests in the form of Watery bird like creatures.They watch in horror as one of these pretty much KO's another crew member. Then Nala appears and shes the next course until our hero lures him away from her.

Gunnar appears and basically takes charge helping the ship survive through the night but heres the kicker - Captain dead and all but Cook of the original crew can it. Also Nala's father bites the dust Leaving the boat to be patched up and now belonging to our merry band of sailors Sinbad, Gunnar, Rina, Anwar, Nala and Cook.

Oh after 1 more drama of course. Rina gets trapped under the hold and water is rising. Sinbad dives in gives her air via mouth kiss (1st potential romance????) and rescues her.

So my new favourite TV show at the moment is Sinbad. I will hold my hands up I was not sure at first. I saw all the teasers on sky 1, thought fab this will be something like Hercules or xena and I will love it. Then I watched the pilot and I was a bit meh . . . . However as I have the new fancy TIVO thingy I season linked it and decided to give it another go. I am so glad I did!

Elliot Knight (Who I think I recognise from Hollyoaks although could be wrong - there is no mention of that on his IMDB page) plays our hero. He is rather tasty and happy to announce he takes his top off a lot :)

However its Anwar my inner fan girl is totally screaming for. Dimitri Leonidas is adorable as the doctor who has led a rather sheltered life compared to the others and seems to always be getting into trouble. Where has this actor been hiding? I mean as another blogger (where I found the pic) put it. How can you not love that face??????

Marama Corlett plays Rina - a jewel thief. And if the writers are going the way my fan girl wants them too - Anwars gal. They are so adorable together and the interaction perfect. Rina is scrappy and at the beginning just out for herself.

Elliot Cowan plays Gunnar the ships warrior. He is pretty dam awesome and very funny at times. Dark past as a warrior and very handy with a sword and axe. Also he seems the only one on board bar cook who knows how to raise and knot sails properly. Gunnar seems to do the hard labour most eps bless him.

Estella Daniels plays Nala a noble women who was in the first half of the series and then just disappeared. Not sure why, she had so much more character background to delve into. Perhaps she will be back for season 2. Fingers crossed. Well fingers crossed there will be a season 2. So many cool shows seems to be getting discontinued i.e. defying gravity, Terra Nova and least we forget FIREFLY - FOX WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!

And Tuppence Middleton is Tiger - fast becoming Sinbads chicky dee. She joined after Nala left. Called Tiger as she was brought up by Tigers. Tiger has only been in 2 eps so far.

And we have Taryn played by Orla Brady who is the or seems to be the big bad. Although thats kind of debatable now.

And lastly Junix Inocian as cook who is just epic. The only man I know who can put robbers to sleep with food and seduce with Kaffa lime. I also suspect that he's more than he seems. He has not set foot off the boat yet making me wonder if he's actually some magical part of it. Perhaps he is the providence personified or something. Who knows!

Well as usual my blogging has been pap! So I guess I need to catch the world up on a few things. Since my washer went down and I had to buy a new one I stopped going to fat club. This decision was fiscal as I am trying to save money to sort my kitchen out. So I have been trying at home to follow the plan. I have lost a bit but I have to say it is harder by yourself.

Its fast coming up to mine and my gorgeous niece's birthday. So that's to look forward too. My friends Yvonne, Helen and Rebecca decided to plan a trip down to the Harry Potter tour for my birthday. We could only get tickets on a Saturday in November but still it should be brilliant. I am really looking forward to seeing all the sets and things.

I have not really been up to a whole lot. Guild wars 2 is out and its well pretty dam awesome. I am happy or maybe sad depending on the crowd . . . to say that I have lost many many hours to this game so far. I am playing a Slyvari Elementalist - just got up to level 46. I would put a picture up but as I am completely crap and have no idea where on my pc it has been saving game screenshots it will have to wait until I have spoken to Yoda at work!

Also I have been watching some TV which I need to update about. Warning ...... as always these posts will include spoilers :)